Manhattan Interactive: City to broadcast public access over the internet

This New York Times article states that NYC TV clips - over 500 of them - can now be found on the internet through the city's website, www.nyc.gov. Dozens of clips will be added weekly, said Bloomberg, which can be searched by neighborhood or category, such as shopping, parks or food.

Users can also email video clips in, making this medium a sort of Interactive TV.

Al Gore, who recently won an Emmy for his work, has created Current TV, an independent media company that first went on air in August of 2005. The network features short programs, called "pods", of which about 30% are created by viewers.

This sort of interactive television again highlights the power of Web 2.0. As I've said in previous posts, user driven content is no fad, but the direction media is headed. Furthermore, as a 'mobilephile', I'm inclined to believe that the convergence of the standard web experience and the mobile web experience is happening faster than most realize. With applications like Current TV, or any IPTV for that matter, users will have even more reasons to go mobile.

Twenty years ago, very few thought it would be necessary to have a telephone with you at all times. Very few thought you'd need a personal computer. The internet was exclusively used for data exchange between researchers and scientists. A lot has changed since then - all three of those have converged, and are still doing so. It's quite exciting to witness these developments.

WhereverTV looks to create 1,200 channels of Mobile Television

According to this Engadget Mobile article, WhereverTV has promised 1,200 channels of Mobile Television to be delivered to 3G handsets by the end of the year. On top of that, the network will be fueled by advertisements, so, for starters, users will not be charged for subscriptions.

Twelve-hundred channels is enormous. With all of the legal troubles involved with rebroadcasting, it's hard to imagine how long it took to set enough deals in place to gather this much content. Hopefully the beta testing works out, and we can see some of the lasting power of mobile television. Also, it will be interesting to discover their implementation of advertisments, especially since screen real estate is so valueable to the mobile user.